[PUBLISH] In the United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit

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No. 22-14302 ____________________

NEW GEORGIA PROJECT, INC., NEW GEORGIA PROJECT ACTION FUND, INC., Plaintiffs-Appellees, versus ATTORNEY GENERAL, STATE OF GEORGIA, CHAIRMAN OF GEORGIA GOVERNMENT TRANSPARENCY AND CAMPAIGN FINANCE COMMISSION, VICE CHAIR OF THE GEORGIA GOVERNMENT TRANSPAR- ENCY AND CAMPAIGN FINANCE COMMISSION, DARRYL HICKS, in his official capacity as a member of the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission DAVID BURGE, in his official capacity as a member of the Georgia USCA11 Case: 22-14302 Document: 57-1 Date Filed: 07/08/2024 Page: 2 of 30

2 Opinion of the Court 22-14302

Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission, et al.,

Defendants-Appellants.

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Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia D.C. Docket No. 1:22-cv-03533-VMC ____________________

Before ROSENBAUM, NEWSOM, and MARCUS, Circuit Judges. NEWSOM, Circuit Judge: In this appeal from the grant of a preliminary injunction, we are asked to decide whether two Georgia campaign-finance stat- utes violate the First Amendment and, as a threshold matter, whether the district court should have abstained from exercising its jurisdiction under Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37 (1971). After careful review, and with the benefit of oral argument, we hold that Younger and its progeny required the district court to abstain and that the court therefore erred in issuing injunctive re- lief. Accordingly, we needn’t reach the merits of the First Amend- ment challenge. We vacate the district court’s decision and remand with instructions that it dismiss the underlying action. USCA11 Case: 22-14302 Document: 57-1 Date Filed: 07/08/2024 Page: 3 of 30

22-14302 Opinion of the Court 3

I A New Georgia Project is a § 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit founded by former state representative and gubernatorial candi- date Stacey Abrams. Its mission “is to build power with and in- crease the civic participation of . . . Black, Latinx, AAPI, and young Georgians . . . and other historically marginalized communities” through “voter registration, organizing, and advocacy.” New Georgia Project Action Fund is a § 501(c)(4) tax-exempt nonprofit whose purpose, it says, is “not the nomination or election of candi- dates, but rather engagement in issue advocacy.” We’ll refer to these two entities together as “New Georgia.” The Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Fi- nance Act requires individuals and entities that spend more than a specified amount on express advocacy in favor of or in opposition to a particular candidate or ballot measure to disclose those ex- penditures and their sources. See O.C.G.A. § 21-5-3(2), (15); id. § 21-5-34(a), (f). The Act also requires “campaign committees” and “independent committees” to register with the Georgia Govern- ment Transparency and Campaign Finance C